Is it time to amend the Planning Act and give the heave-ho to Bord Pleanala ?

“It is considered that the site of Liberty Hall is of national historic and social significance and is located at a prominent and sensitive location fronting onto the River Liffey, within the historic city core of Dublin and adjacent to the Custom House, a protected structure of primary importance in the state. Having regard to policy SC18 of the planning authority, as set out in the Dublin City Development Plan 2011 – 17, which seeks to protect and enhance the skyline of the inner city inter alia, and notwithstanding the quality of the architectural design, it is considered that the scale and in particular, the height of the development as proposed, would be unacceptably dominant in the city, would be visually intrusive in the streetscape and riverscape and would seriously injure the visual amenities of the city and its skyline. Furthermore, the proposed development would seriously detract from the setting and character of the Custom House, would intrude on the O’Connell Street and Grafton Street Architectural Conservation Areas, Board Direction and other important vistas in the city. The proposed development would, therefore be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area.” An Bord Pleanala’sdecision on 13th November 2012 rejecting the proposed redevelopment of SIPTU’s Liberty Hall in central Dublin

“As Environment Minister I not only want to protect the environment, but also do everything I can to create jobs and develop the economy. This scheme will help with construction jobs and I hope create opportunities in the retail sector” Northern Ireland’s environment minister, Alex Atwood, announcing a major development in Newtownards, county Down in October 2012

Developers have a love/hate relationship with An Bord Pleanala, the quango established in 1977 to act as a politically independent final body of appeal when considering changes to our built environment. Mostly developers have a dim view of the board and veteran developer , Paddy Kelly, in a reflective speech at the MacGill Summer School in 2010 described their decisions as capricious and not making sense. In the past year, An Bord Pleanala has put an end to a proposed development of a children’s hospital at the site of the Mater Hospital in central Dublin and today it has stopped the redevelopment of Dublin’s once-tallest building, Liberty Hall. What will be infuriating to some, in the context of our economic crisis, is the preciousness of the reasons given by Bord Pleanala for their decisions, and it may be time to amend the legislation governing how we deal with development to place broader economic considerations to the forefront.

For visitors to Dublin who might have a fresh perspective, the “injury to the visual amenities of the city and its skyline” sounds like complete tosh. Take our premier upmarket shopping street, Grafton Street. At street level, you have a mish-mash of McDonalds, Burger King (two of), mobile phone shops, newsagents, gift shops with the odd smattering of the upmarket retail offerings that you would expect from this street and of the two main anchors on the street – M&S and Brown Thomas – only the last has anything like cachet. Above street level, you have anything from tattoo parlours to internet cafes. And as for the architecture itself, you’ll count about 10 architectural styles though the dominant one is “borderline dilapidated” O’Connell Street is just as bad and at the north end of that street, you have Joe O’Reilly’s derelict site which has been in limbo for years, amid financial issues and planning for Metro North. And although there has been development in the area, much of it resembles the Dublin of “Strumpet City”. And between O’Connell Street and Grafton Street, many might think Dublin’s “streetscape and cityscape” were ruined in the 1890s when the ugly Loopline rail bridge was constructed just down river from O’Connell Bridge which interrupts what is an attractive array of quayside architecture, particularly the Custom House. So the preciousness of “injuring the visual amenities” of the city seems more than a little la-di-da when you take a fresh look at the city.

We might benefit on this side of the Border from studying the recent developments in Northern Ireland where at their Department of the Environment, the minister, the SDLP’s Alex Atwood, acts as a final body of appeal – though his decisions are technically open to judicial review – and has recently ramped up the rate at which major scheme approvals are granted, including the development of an extension at the Ards shopping centre and a major development at Castlebawn on the edge of Newtownards.

As for An Bord Pleanala, it may be politically independent though the appointees are selected by the Minister for the Environment Community and Local Government, Phil Hogan, but their mandate seems disproportionately skewed towards subjective aesthetics and in the midst of an economic depression, our legislators might consider if the mandate of the body be modified or prorogued for a few years. As for the two rejections this year, the Mater development was indeed colossal and the Liberty Hall development would have taken the crown for Dublin’s tallest building back from Montevetro on Barrow Street but with 15% unemployment, an IMF funding programme, a 10% decline in national income and a still-awful deficit, economic considerations should trump overnice concerns for “injury to the skyline and cityscape”

Board Pleanala have by and large done a good job. I would back the board any day over the clowns in city hall. It is Dublin City Council that have crucified the city in their quest to fund salaries from contributions also the failure to carry out enforcement. They practically entered into joint enterprises to promote high rise across the city with mad cap developers. Just imagine if Sean Dunne had got his wicked way? That said, there are many 5 and 6 storey apartment blocks in Dublin which are failing as we write, that have no money to repair gates, lifts some barely have the money to get rubbish collected. Many have management committees that are on the verge of collapse this is going to come back to bite DCC big time.

The city would be in shreds only for the Board. However, One decision they made which was ludicrous,but can be attributed to Dick Roche was the decision to grant planning permission for the “flying saucer building” on the site of the Clarance Hotel, Wellington Quay. I am praying it does not go ahead, financed with profits from Bono’s FB killing. It will be a gut wrenching disaster but then these people need the oxygen of publicity and i cannot see him passing op on the opportunity to ruin the vista of looking down the quays from O’Connell Bridge

“2. REMUNERATION
(I) The rate of pay at present is the first point of the Assistant Secretary scale (less 8% as per paragraph 4 of Department of Finance Circular 28/2009) i.e. €121,208 (non Personal Pension Contribution), or €127,588 (Personal Pension Contribution), and shall be paid by the Board. This rate is gross before deduction, inter alia, of employee’s contribution to the contributory pension schemes operated by the Board. (See Clause 6, Superannuation, below).”

Thanks for this Jan great answer your constituents should be proud of you…

“At the end of December 2011 there were 158.1 whole time equivalent employees of the Board (including Board members). At end March 2012, the equivalent figure was 151.9. Audited figures in respect of remuneration for the financial year 2011 will be available on the Board’s website in due course.”

Just because they made a balls of the streetscape view from O’Connell bridge in 1890 and again in1980 that is no reason to do it again. There should be a proper streescape plan from the bridge on both sides, including taking down Liberty Hall. Stand on the Matt Talbot bridge and look East, it is possible to redevelope sensitively.

It would be wrong and illogical to conclude based on two decisions that the Board only looks at visual aspects of planning. Traffic, environment, overdevelopment, flooding and n other reasons are given for refusing bad development.

No one has one ounce of belief in the planning process simply because it has a colonial agenda at it core. It isn’t designed to aid but to cull. It is this that has us going to the politicians to circumvent a process that they designed. What should be a happy event, the redevelopment or building, is changed to a feudal kowtowing to the local TD and his party.
This is such that well connected nutters can build whatever they like. And god help us but the IDA can poison entire counties and river basins with the promise of feeding the gannet of the civil service with off shore taxes.
ABP is responsible for the ribbon of MacMansions up and down every boreen in the State. Remember, due to the combined idiocy and in part nastiness of An Taisca and APB we ended up with farmland at €22,000 an acre at one point.
Dump it I say. And replace it with a solid clear yes/no process that cannot be circumvented. Agus, for heavens sake we should quit being so darn precious of every imported bit of brick ballast stuck on top of each other. Far better we had well designed appts of a size that a family could live than convoluted shoe boxes fitting in with a living system one step above tenement living

‘Far better we had well designed appts of a size that a family could live than convoluted shoe boxes fitting in with a living system one step above tenement living’

Totally agree with this. The extremely poor quality of family accommodation in the city forces 30 pluses out, either to the suburbs or to proper city’s elsewhere that actually consider the family.

The next generation aren’t big fans of the car centric car lifestyle, and I see Dublin paying a price for this. I have two friends that have moved to Berlin because they want to have a family and a city life, not one or the other, both had employment.

Dublin city contains a mix of 30 something, displaced country folk, students and foreign nationals. All of which share one thing in common, life in Dublin City is temporary for them.

The majority of Fathers and Mothers in the Dublin area see Dublin City as hassle to be navigated, as fast as possible, in a car, to and from work and family life elsewhere.

The shoe boxes were promoted by planners and voted through as policy by councillors. On the whole, An Bord Pleanala and the Councillors made the best showing in trying to cull the worst of what was coming through. Doing away with the Board – and this article – is simply a call for deregulation to allow things to be developer-led. The last blog in which I would have expected to find this.